World roundup: May 11-12 2026
Stories from Iran, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, and elsewhere
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PROGRAMMING NOTE: Please let me know if you experience any problems with the voiceover. I’m switching to a new recording program so apologies for any technical issues that may arise.
TODAY IN HISTORY
May 11, 330: Roman Emperor Constantine I consecrates the city of Byzantium, located on the strategically vital Bosporus Strait, as his new imperial capital. Constantine had chosen Byzantium as the best site for a new capital city in 324, after he’d assumed sole rule of the empire, because of its position close to both the Danubian and Mesopotamian frontiers. Officially known as “Nova Roma” (New Rome), the city became known by the less formal moniker “Constantinopolitan Rome,” which eventually became “Constantinople.” Its modern name, Istanbul, is thought to derive from a Greek phrase meaning “to the city.”
May 11, 868: A woodblock printed copy of a Chinese translation of the Diamond Sutra, a Mahayana Buddhist text, is completed. Why is this noteworthy? Because this particular copy, included among a trove of documents discovered in a cave in Duhuang, China, in 1900, is—at least as far as the British Library is concerned—“the world’s earliest dated, printed book.” Thanks to the intact dedication, scholars know when, by whom, and for whom the document was produced—it reads “Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 15th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong.” That apparently corresponds to May 11, 868.
May 11, 1258: King Louis IX of France and King James I of Aragon sign the Treaty of Corbeil, which proved to have significant ramifications for the development of the modern nations of France and Spain. The main provision from our perspective involved Louis’ surrender of any claim on the region known as the “Hispanic March,” which largely corresponds with the region better known today as Catalonia, including the city of Barcelona. That region became more firmly attached to what would eventually become Spain as a result. James, meanwhile, gave up claims on several future French regions, including Toulouse and (a bit later) Provence.
May 12, 1364: Jagiellonian University is founded as the “University of Kraków” by Polish King Casimir III, making it the oldest university in Poland. The institution hit a rough patch after Casimir’s death in 1370, but had its funding restored and a permanent location obtained for it by King Władysław II Jagiełło (r. 1386-1434). After having been known as the Kraków Academy for much of its existence, the university’s name was changed several times around the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, eventually settling on its current moniker in 1817 in honor of Władysław II’s Jagiellonian dynasty.
May 12, 1551: The National University of San Marcos is founded in Lima, Peru, under a decree from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Initially called the “Royal and Pontifical University of the City of the Kings of Lima,” it is officially the oldest still-active university in the Americas and is sometimes called the “Dean of the Americas” for that reason. The Dominican Republic’s Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo is unofficially even older, having been founded in 1538, but it didn’t receive its official charter until 1558.
May 12, 1998: During a protest against Indonesian dictator Suharto on the campus of Jakarta’s Trisakti University, soldiers open fire on the protesters and kill four of them. The killings triggered riots in Jakarta that quickly spread to the city of Surakarta and involved demands for Suharto’s resignation as well as attacks on ethnic Chinese Indonesian communities. Upwards of 1200 people were killed in the violence, and Suharto resigned on May 21 after more than 30 years in power.
MIDDLE EAST
SYRIA
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for killing two soldiers in an attack in northeastern Syria’s Hasakah province on Monday. A number of soldiers were wounded in the incident.
LEBANON
The Israeli military (IDF) killed at least 13 people in southern Lebanon overnight and into Tuesday, including at least two paramedics. The Lebanese Health Ministry accused the Israelis of intentionally targeting them, which would continue a pattern of strikes against first responders that has seen at least 108 of them killed since the war began on March 2. Highlighting the futility of the current “ceasefire,” the NGO Save the Children reported on Tuesday that the IDF has killed or wounded four children per day in Lebanon since it went into effect on April 16.
A Hezbollah drone strike killed an IDF reservist along the Israel-Lebanon border on Sunday, which I mention to highlight the extent to which Hezbollah’s use of cheap, fiber-optic operated “First Person View” drones seems to be causing the IDF fits. The fact that they’re controlled via cable renders the IDF’s electronic interference irrelevant, and while these strikes haven’t been debilitating they have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers and thus they are a genuine cause for IDF concern.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
The New York Times’ Nick Kristof has written a new reported column on claims of sexual violence in the Israeli prison system, based on interviews with Palestinian victims of that violence. I’m not going to excerpt the column because space this evening is at a premium and Kristof can be tedious even when he’s on to something important, on top of which those claims are not new and I presume readers of this newsletter will be familiar with them. That said, the allegations are new to the NYT and I think that’s significant enough to mention.
IRAN
There are a few items of note:
Donald Trump described the US-Iran ceasefire as “on life support” on Monday, as he was apparently still in his feelings about Tehran’s response to his latest negotiating proposal. He referred to that response as “stupid” and “garbage,” adding that he “didn’t even finish reading it.” He was apparently scheduled to meet with senior military officers to discuss options but it’s unclear what became of that. The US Navy’s Sixth Fleet did mention in a press release that it has dispatched an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine to Gibraltar, and since the US Navy usually doesn’t talk about where those vessels are we can assume that this was a thinly veiled threat to use it against Iran. It could even be viewed as a threat to nuke Iran although I don’t think that’s really on the table.
If Trump decides to resume the shooting war he may change its name from “Operation Epic Fury” to “Operation Sledgehammer,” according to NBC News. This is so that he can pretend that it’s a new war for the purposes of dodging a War Powers vote in the US Congress. One assumes that will be enough to satisfy congressional leaders, who don’t want to hold that vote anyway.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the UAE “has carried out military strikes on Iran” since at least early April. This is supposed to demonstrate the Emiratis’ willingness to use military force to protect the country and its interests, though I think that’s undercut slightly by the fact that they’ve refused to acknowledge these operations publicly. It’s certainly not surprising that the UAE would retaliate for Iranian attacks, and suggestions that this might set the country apart from its fellow Gulf Cooperation Council states went out the window on Tuesday when Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia has also been carrying out attacks on Iran. Again these operations that the Saudis have steadfastly refused to acknowledge are supposed to demonstrate the country’s “boldness.” Unlike the Emiratis the Saudis paired their military activity with increased diplomatic contacts with Tehran and Iranian attacks on the kingdom seem to have reduced in frequency, which cannot be said about the UAE.
The Trump administration blacklisted 12 more individuals and entities on Monday over their alleged role in selling Iranian oil to China. The UK government also added 12 names to its Iran blacklist on Monday, though in this case they’re alleged to have “threatened” UK security as well as “stability in the Middle East.”
The Pentagon is now telling Congress that the Iran war has cost $29 billion to date. That is almost certainly a massive undercounting.
It may be worth noting here that a reporter asked Trump on Tuesday whether he’s considering “Americans’ financial situations” when deciding how to proceed with respect to Iran. His answer? “Not even a little bit.” He added that his only concern is that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” something he said was no longer an issue after last year’s “12 Day War.” Politically I’m excited to see where this approach takes him.
Trump did say on Monday that he intends to suspend the federal fuel tax in response to rising prices. This won’t work, since the tax is 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel and that reduction will quickly be overwhelmed if oil prices continue to increase. But it will deprive the government of billions of dollars in revenue at a time when the Trump administration is already looking to redirect spending on social programs to the military.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that the Iraqi and Pakistani governments have cut deals with Tehran to permit some energy (oil and liquefied natural gas) shipments to leave the Persian Gulf. In the absence of a peace deal, Iran is still using its closure of the Strait of Hormuz to establish de facto control over who can and cannot use that waterway.
ASIA
PAKISTAN
A bombing killed at least ten people in a marketplace in northern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday. There’s been no claim of responsibility yet as far as I know but Pakistani authorities will presumably look at the Pakistani Taliban and likely renew their accusations that the Afghan government is sheltering that group.
INDIA
The AP reports on how governments in India and other Asian countries are preparing for additional economic shocks due to the Iran war:
India has relied on subsidies to shield its 1.4 billion people until now, but on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged citizens to buy locally and cut down on travel abroad to save dollars. He also encouraged people to work from home and use public transport to reduce fuel consumption, and asked farmers to halve fertilizer use.
The Philippines quickly shifted to a four-day work week to save fuel. It also rolled out targeted subsidies for poorer households. However, Fitch Ratings noted that most consumers are still paying higher energy costs, causing business activity to slow in major cities like Manila.
Thailand abandoned its diesel price cap less than a month after the conflict began, as its fuel subsidies ran out. It’s now cutting other spending to manage higher oil prices while trying to keep its budget under control.
Vietnam extended a suspension of fuel taxes to ease pressure on domestic prices. Jet fuel shortages have led to flight cuts. Tourism makes up nearly 8% of Vietnam’s gross domestic product — the nation’s total output of goods and services — so that affects the entire economy.
AFRICA
SUDAN
The Sudan Tribune is reporting that “several” civilians were killed in a drone strike on the North Darfur town of Karnoi on Tuesday. In addition to the casualties the strike also apparently “disabled” a well that is a key source of water for the surrounding community. There doesn’t seem to be any indication as to responsibility but as Karnoi is controlled by the Rapid Support Forces militant group it seems reasonable to assume that the Sudanese military or one of its affiliates carried out the strike.
NIGERIA
Amnesty International is accusing the Nigerian military of killing more than 100 civilians in an airstrike on Sunday in northwestern Nigeria’s Zamfara state. Nigerian authorities have confirmed the strike but are rejecting the claim of civilian casualties, though their track record on that front is checkered at best. AFP is reporting that another military airstrike on Sunday killed at least 13 civilians in Niger state (authorities are also denying that charge), while bandits killed at least 30 people in Zamfara in an attack that was “unrelated to the air strike.”
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
According to Reuters, M23 militants withdrew “from several key positions in Congo’s eastern South Kivu province over the weekend.” In particular the group apparently pulled back from a position around 35 kilometers north of the city of Uvira to a new position another 30 kilometers further north. It’s the first major M23 redeployment since the group briefly seized Uvira back in December and then withdrew from it a short time later under pressure from the US. This redeployment apparently also came after “diplomatic pressure” from Washington.
EUROPE
EUROPEAN UNION
EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions on leaders of both Hamas and the Israeli settler movement on Monday. This is an agreement in principle so there’s nothing specific to report and at any rate the effect is likely to be negligible, but it is noteworthy inasmuch as the Hungarian government had been blocking sanctions against Israeli interests. Now that Hungary is under new leadership that’s apparently no longer the case and could have repercussions for EU actions in other arenas (particularly on new Russia sanctions).
RUSSIA
The EU also blacklisted 16 individuals allegedly involved in the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russian forces. It’s believed that the Russians have trafficked a bit over 20,000 Ukrainian children to Russia since the current invasion began in 2022.
CNN reports on the questions surrounding the Russian cargo vessel Ursa Major, which exploded and sank off the coast of Spain back in December 2024. The cause of its sinking is unclear, as is the nature of its cargo—Spanish authorities say that the captain told them it was hauling “components for two nuclear reactors similar to those used in submarines” and there’s speculation that it was heading for North Korea. The nature of its sinking invites speculation that it was attacked, though there’s also a suggestion that one of its Russian military escorts scuttled the ship after it took the initial catastrophic damage. The ship’s data recorder has either not been recovered or is being kept secret. There’s been no indication that the reactor “components” the ship was carrying included nuclear fuel, though the US military has reportedly overflown the location of the wreck at least twice using Boeing WC-135 aircraft that are used to detect nuclear activity.
UKRAINE
The Russian and Ukrainian militaries resumed their conflict in earnest on Tuesday, after the expiration of their three-day “Victory Day” ceasefire. Russian strikes killed at least six people in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk oblast.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Bosnian High Representative Christian Schmidt announced his resignation on Monday. Schmidt has had a rocky time dealing with separatist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, which reached a crescendo last year when federal authorities suspended Dodik from politics for repeatedly ignoring Schmidt’s decisions. However, the immediate cause of his resignation is apparently a dispute with the Trump administration related to a gas pipeline project whose major investors have personal ties to Donald Trump. Schmidt expressed concerns about that project. Dodik, by contrast, supports the pipeline and has hired a number of Trump-connected people as lobbyists and consequently got himself out from under US sanctions back in October.
Because the “interim” governmental system imposed under the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War in 1995 remains in place, the high representative is the de facto top political official in the federal Bosnian government. Schmidt’s appointment was made over Russian and Chinese objections and so there have been questions about his legitimacy (to say nothing of questions about the legitimacy of the office itself). US deputy ambassador to the United Nations Tammy Bruce argued to the UN Security Council on Tuesday that Schmidt’s replacement should have “a far more limited set of responsibilities,” so this could mark a significant turning point for the country.
AMERICAS
VENEZUELA
Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday that he’s “seriously considering” making Venezuela a US state—the 51st US state, specifically, though I seem to recall that he’s already reserved that slot for Canada. Obviously there’s no reason to give this even the slightest bit of attention, but interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez did feel the need to refute it, gently, in comments to reporters. She was at The Hague to press Venezuela’s territorial claim on western Guyana’s Essequibo region before the International Court of Justice, so I guess annexation was just in the air.
MEXICO
CNN reported on Tuesday that a bombing that killed “a mid-level member of the Sinaloa Cartel” near Mexico City back on March 28 “was a targeted assassination, facilitated by CIA operations officers.” In fact it says that this bombing “was part of an expanded, and previously unreported, CIA campaign inside Mexico — spearheaded by the agency’s elite and secretive Ground Branch — to dismantle the entrenched cartel networks.” That campaign has involved “deadly attacks on several, mostly mid-level cartel members.” Direct CIA involvement in any lethal actions in Mexico would be a significant escalation of the US role in counternarcotics operations there and would flat-out violate Mexican law if, as appears to be the case, it isn’t always being coordinated with Mexican authorities. Both the CIA and the Mexican government are denying the report.
HAITI
What the AP is describing as “a new wave of gang violence” in Port-au-Prince has reportedly displaced hundreds of people around the Cité Soleil neighborhood since at least Sunday. The violence is threatening Toussaint Louverture International Airport, where many of the displaced seem to be heading.
Elsewhere, Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said in an interview on Monday that the country’s security situation will not allow for elections in late August as previously scheduled. A delay of that vote became inevitable when elections officials postponed a voter registration effort that was supposed to begin in early April, but this is the most definitive statement yet that the vote won’t be happening. Fils-Aimé maintained the new hope of an election by the end of the year, though that also seems like a long shot at this point.
CUBA
Aside from Iran, Donald Trump is also reportedly frustrated that his sanctions and blockades haven’t collapsed the Cuban government. According to NBC News he’s been badgering aides over the lack of “progress,” and while they’re telling him that the government could still fall by the end of the year that may not be fast enough for him. This may explain why the US military seems to be preparing for some sort of Cuban operation.
GREENLAND
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told reporters in Denmark on Tuesday that his government has been in discussions with the Trump administration about expanding the US military presence on the island. The Pentagon currently operates one base in Greenland but is looking to set up at least three more in the southern part of the island, and the administration has reportedly floated the idea that those bases could be considered “sovereign territory” of the US. At least two of the three locations for proposed US facilities are on sites where the Pentagon previously had bases so they have at least some of the necessary infrastructure already in place.
UNITED STATES
Finally, NOTUS reports that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has created a new “team” whose job is to go after Donald Trump’s political enemies:
The FBI now has a team of special agents that’s being internally referred to as the “payback squad” specifically put together to handle politically sensitive cases, according to four sources briefed on the matter who spoke to NOTUS on the condition of anonymity.
The team is understood to be made up of agents who are willing to pursue political targets set by the Trump administration, with one current government official noting that investigators are tasked with building cases similar to the recent criminal prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey. The sources — which include two current government officials, a former official and a fourth person familiar with current operations — differed on whether the squad is based out of Washington headquarters or New York.
A current law enforcement official described the squad as a team of agents who know what they’re signing up for and work temporary rotations at an off-site location away from standard FBI field offices as part of an effort that began roughly a year ago.
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